Described herein are nanoparticles composed of water insoluble glucans, the nanoparticles produced by a process involving suspending water insoluble glucans in water to produce a suspension, homogenizing the suspension in a high pressure homogenizer for about 10 to about 60 times to produce a clear suspension containing the nanoparticles, and filtering the suspension using a filter to purify the nanoparticles. Also films composed of the above nanoparticles. In addition, there is disclosed a process for producing nanoparticles composed of water insoluble glucans, the process involving suspending water insoluble glucans in water to produce a suspension, homogenizing the suspension in a high pressure homogenizer for about 10 to about 60 times to produce a clear suspension, and filtering the suspension using a filter to purify nanoparticles.
Furthermore, there are described surfactant stabilized nanoparticles composed of water insoluble glucans, the nanoparticles produced by a process involving dissolving water insoluble glucans in a basic solution to form a glucan solution, adding the glucan solution to an alcohol solution containing a surfactant while stirring followed by cooling at about 0° C. to about 10°C. and sonication at about 180 to about 420 watts at about a 50% pulse rate (e g., 50%) for about 3 to about 7 minutes to form a suspension containing nanoparticles, centrifuging the suspension to isolate the precipitate, adding deionized water to the precipitate and dialyzing against deionized water to remove excess surfactants and base; if the surfactant is poly(vinyl alcohol) then the surfactant is not in the alcohol solution but is in the deionized water. Also films composed of the above nanoparticles. In addition, a process for producing surfactant stabilized nanoparticles composed of water insoluble glucans, the process involving dissolving water insoluble glucans in a basic solution to lot form a glucan solution, adding the glucan solution to an alcohol solution containing a surfactant while stirring followed by cooling at about 0° C. to about 10° C. and sonication at about 180 to about 420 watts at about a 50% pulse rate for about 3 to about 7 minutes to form a suspension containing nanoparticles, centrifuging the suspension to isolate the precipitate, adding deionized water to the precipitate and dialyzing, against deionized water to remove excess surfactants and base; if the surfactant is poly(vinyl alcohol) then the surfactant is not in the alcohol solution but is in the deionized water.
The future availability and the generally rising cost of fossil fuels as feedstock for the manufacturing of synthetic polymers has initiated a rapidly expanding drive for the discovery and commercialization of polymeric materials from renewable sources. The production capacity of bin-based polymers is expected to rise from 3.5 to 12 million metric tons by 2020 (Dammer, L., et al., Market Developments of and Opportunities for Biobased Products and Chemicals, 2013). This growth, however, only represents 3% of the polymer industry as a whole. In order for bin-based polymers to become a more significant share of the market, novel uses for these materials need to be developed and evaluated. Products of this nature produced via inexpensive and renewable starting materials could increase innovation and decrease the eventual end user cost.
Our laboratory has a long-standing interest in the production of biopolymers produced by bacterial glycansucrases from sucroses such as dextran, levan, and alternan (Leathers. T. D., Dextran, IN Biopolymers. Polysaccharides. I. Polysaccharides from Prokaryotes, Vandamme, E. DeBaets, S., Steinbüchel, A., Eds., Wiley-VCH, Weiheim, Germany, 2002, pp. 299-321; Cote, G. L., and J. Ahlgren, a Levan and Levansucrase. In Science and Technology of Fructans, Suzuki, M., Chatterton, N. J., Eds., CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, Fla., 1993, pp. 141-168; Cote, G. L. Alternan. IN Biopolymers. Polysaccharides, I. Polysaccharides from Prokaryotes, Vandamme, E., DeBaets, S., Steinbüchel, A., Eds., Wiley-VCH, Weiheim, Germany, 2002, pp. 323-350). We have, recently described enzymes from food-grade lactic acid bacteria that produce water-insoluble glucans from sucrose (Côté, G. L., and C. D., Skory, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 93: 2387-2394 (2012); Côté, G. L., et al., Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 97; 7265-7273 (2013); Côté, G. L., and C. D. Skory, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 98: 6651-6658 (2014)). These glucans are found in fermented foods and beverages, and are commonly encountered in ginger beer and water kefir fermentations (Pidoux, M., et al., Carbohydr. Polym., 13: 351-362 (1990); Waldherr, F. W., et al., Food Microbiol. 27: 672-678 (2010)). They are insoluble in water due to the preponderance of sequences of α(1→3)-linked D-glucopyransosyl units, although α(1→6)-linked sequences are also present. A single enzyme is responsible for the synthesis of the glucan and can be readily used in vitro to synthesize water-insoluble gels directly from sucrose. Significant attention from industry on water insoluble glucans has resulted in several patents on the production and utility of similar glucans (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0244288; U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,000; U.S. Patent Application Publication No, 2013/0161562; U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013016186). Harsh conditions such as dissolution in extremely alkaline solutions or ionic liquids were required to obtain new materials, which can be difficult or expensive to adopt on a larger scale.
The nature of these glucans, mainly their insolubility in water, makes them interesting candidates as the starting materials for nanoparticles. Nanoparticles have been shown to be an efficient technology in delivery medicine (Kumari, A., et al., Colloids Surf. B. Biointerfaces., 75: 1-18 (2010)), provide a variety of improvements to the automotive industry (Mohseni, M. et al., New Advances in Vehicular Technology and Automotive Engineering, Chapter 1, pages 3-54(2012)), in cosmetics (Raj, S., et al., J. Pharm. Bioallied. Sci., 4: 186-193 (2012)), and many other industries. The use of renewable resources in these systems could only increase their value to society.
We have produced nanoparticles through the use of high-pressure homogenization of water-insoluble glucans which have significant utility on their own or as precursors to new materials.